annoying squeak

I have a small squeak / squeal that wont go away.
I changed the belt and pulley, thinking that was it.
But it still comes back. But it only comes when the car has been driven for about 40 minutes or so. and the squeak/ squeal is only present at idle or around 1400 RPM's. sometimes it squeals and sometimes it doesnt. If i'm at a stop sign and it squeaks, if i put it in nuetral and give a gas, it goes away.
It has me stumped. I's asuming that if it was a bearing on a pulley it would be a constant noise. I'm thinking maybe some contaminents got on the belt/ pulleys and are causing it to squeak when the belt gets warm.
Any thoughts????

would a failing water pump cause this noise??? There are no leaks from that, but maybe propellor or something?

Yeah, you could be dealing with a draggy accessory that is trying to go bad. I'd run it until it starts doing it, then take the belt off real quick and spin the pulleys, see if one (particularly water pump or alternator) feel notchy or draggy. Then start it for a few seconds with the belt off, just to verify that it is indeed a belt-driven noise. Check the grooves of the belt for imbedded sand or other debris, and make sure there is no oil or coolant residue on it. Sometimes misalignment of belt driven parts will cause this problem, but it isn't too common anymore cuz with serp belts, all the accessories are solid mounted, and usually don't get out of whack. But you could just check that the alt, P/S, A/C, Tensioner are tight and not trying to "tip in" under belt tension.

PS, that A/C pulley should spin perfectly free with the A/C off, if it drags at all that might be what you hear. Sometimes the compressor is fine, but the pulley bearing in the front goes bad. When this happens, the sound usually changes abrubptly as the compressor engages.

the noise does not change with the ac on or off. still happens either way, and no change in pitch.
going to give it a good steam cleaning this weekend. (2 months ago, I hit a puddle, and since than is when Ive been hearing the squeal)
Can one replace the bearing on the ac compressor? Difficult? Whats involved?

the noise does not change with the ac on or off. still happens either way, and no change in pitch.
going to give it a good steam cleaning this weekend. (2 months ago, I hit a puddle, and since than is when Ive been hearing the squeal)
Can one replace the bearing on the ac compressor? Difficult? Whats involved?

It can be done, but you need a special tool to deal with the clutch on the front, and the A/C may need to be evac'd and charged after, if the seal is damaged. Best left to a shop that does this stuff. Find a place that specializes in A/C work, they can do it faster and more reliably than most places.

thanks jeff!
We will see what happens after i clean it.
Why would somethign only squeal when its hot? any thoughts??

thanks jeff!
We will see what happens after i clean it.
Why would somethign only squeal when its hot? any thoughts??

A bad bearing gets tighter as it heats up, heat causes lubricants to thin to the point that they cannot adequately float a damaged bearing.

Also the belt is harder and slightly shorter and tighter and will slip easier when cold, a draggy pulley will have more grip and noise once the belt's rubber gets warm and sticky and the materials relax. When cold it may slip without making an audible sound. Usually when they squeal more when warm, it is an item that runs on the flat side of the belt, water pump or tensioner, but not always.

hey new guy here i came on here looking for answs to my annoying squeak wich is the same discription of yours ive replaced 2 water pumps in the past week(refurbished) and when i take off the belt and spin the pully by hand it makes a sound similar to a duck. one of the problems it is causing is its leving a black residue from the serp belt on the tensioner pulley. just thought id give my imput, i hope you fix yours and if you find waht it is an let me know that would be great.

The last couple of days my squeak has gone away. I had the black residue on the h2o pump pulley and the idler pulley. I took the belt off and cleaned that.(about 2 weeks ago, but the squeak was still there after cleaning) I also spinned the pulleys, but couldnt get the squeak to happen. Again the squeak only happens when the car has been driven for about 40 minutes or so.
Still has me stumped, but Im gonna try to dig a bit deper this week, and see what I can find.

hey paul when the squeak happens shut the car down and pull of the belt spin the water pump around as fast as you can im not guaranteeing its causing it but its more than likley, the funny thing i find is ive taken a stethiscope to each orf my pullies and i cant pin point it, well good luck bud.

well update on my annoying squeak hope your having some good luck with yours, take a look at your tesioner not pulley itself but the arm and the spring turns out mine isnt my water pump (thank god) my "auto belt tensioner" is slightly out of alignment and is apparnetly from wear and tear but one word of advice if it is that try to get your hands on one as fast as you can, mine had to be ordered in.

I actually replaced the whole tensioner assembly last month. and the squeal was there before that, and still there now.
Will be looking at it tomarrow...

Paul

lol replaced my entire tensioner assembly today the squeak came back, i was furious

where do you think the squeal is coming from????

well i thought iy was again coming from my water pump bought a new one this time installed in in record time, squeak came back man i nearly lost it. it appears to be coming from the rear of the engine wich leaves one last pully, the power steering pump. so now that im broke and in slight debt from my car i have to wait untill im paid to see if thats the problem, im gonna check around this site on the other models with 3.8 engines by gm to see if they have answers. good luck man

i was thinking thats where mine was coming from.
but now my squeal has gone away.......

let me know if yiou find anything out.

Paul

Make sure all your mounting bolts are tight. It doesn't take much misalignment or tip-in to make a serp belt really hiss or squeal.

well i have had no luck with this so far, and im going after my power steering pump next and to answer your q on one of your other posts paulto remove the power steering pump, take off your alternator standard procedure for that, remove your tensioner(again standard procedure drain coolant yadda yadda) now before you loosen off the two bolts holding on the pump, start by draining as much power steering fluid out of the little reservior as possible, jack up your car take the passenger side wheel off and remove the pressure hose and the return hose,make sure you have a pan top catchthe exsess fluid it aint gonna be pretty. one is a spring hose clamp(pliers) the other id a compression flared fitting, (16mm open end wrench). now for removing the pump itself you need to take the pulley it has three holes in it you will see the top bolt just below the rear end of the water pump, turn the pulley so the hole is in line with the bolt. use a 1/2 inch deep socket on your standard rachet to loosen that bolt off. now take the pulley and align one hole with your fram right below use the deep socket to try and find the bottom bolt(easiest way to explain) if you use a flaslight you should be able to see the edge of it down past the pump. take that bolt out and the pump should come out. the new pump should come with all the nessisary component for transfering the pully and the reservior over from old to new. did get this far on mine so good luck from here.

hey man be very careful dun try to fix it yourself take to a mechanic as soon as possible i blew my damn engine on the weekend the noise turned into a grinding noise and then 20 minds later trying to get home boom bent my dip stick at a 90 degree angle. hope you read this before something happens

Jin,
Sorry to hear about yoru motor.
I'm still leaning towards a belt squeal on mine. I've noticed some wear on the outside on one side of the belt. So I'm guessing that its hitting something that it shouldnt. My noise is NOT constant. I went a 11/2 weeks with no noise, than it came back yesterday, and gone today.
As Jeff suggested in a previous post, I'm going to check all pulleys and such and make sure everything is tight and aligned.

Paul

hey paul its me again well, i was looking at pulleys on mine and well turns out it was a crank bearing and i was able to see it after talking to a mechanic( my uncle) i looked at my engine and saw the bearing that blew up through the hole in my block from the connecting rod, ive had two crap replacement engines so far. good luck

I also have squeak that turns into a loud squeal. took off my serp belt and it is still there without any other pulleys. tried to locate it with stehiscope but couldn't find anything. the only relaible sign i have is that it goes away during acceleration. can happen at any constant speed or at idle. very intermitant. only squeaks when it wants to . not when i want it to!!
If you find something, please post it.

Look at the water pump. Behind where the pulley mounts is a hole in the casting. Do you see any antifreeze residue or black gunk around the hole? IF you do, your water pump is shot. That hole is there to help cool the bearing, and when the bearing seal fails, it will leak coolant out that hole. If there is no sign of leakage there, spray each pulley individually with spray lube like WD-40, when the noise quits, you found the offending accessory. I would concentrate on the front bearing on your alternator and the water pump, since you already replaced the tensioner.